During her current pregnancy, Loraine has been extra careful to avoid foods that could potentially cause foodborne illness. Even
though she loves Greek salad, at lunch today she had to order something else because the waiter could not confirm whether or not the feta cheese on the salad was pasteurized. Why should pregnant women avoid unpasteurized cheese? A) Unpasteurized cheese can contain prions that can cross the placental barrier and cause foot-and-mouth disease and spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.B) Unpasteurized cheese can contain botulism spores that can cross the placental barrier and can cause botulism and spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.C) Unpasteurized cheese can contain salmonella bacteria that can cross the placental barrier and cause salmonella and spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.D) Unpasteurized cheese can contain Listeria, a bacterium that can cross the placental barrier and cause listeriosis and spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.
The soft cheese like Camembert, blue cheese and feta cheese are prepared from the unpasteurised milk.
Since the milk is not pasteurized therefore there are higher chances that the prepared cheese will have the micro-organism which could be lethal to humans like Listeria. Listeria is a bacteria which gets killed during the pasteurization process.
The pregnant woman should avoid eating the soft cheese as the cheese could contain the harmful bacteria like listeria which once ingested can enter the placenta and can kill the unborn babies or preterm delivery.
